Catherine the Great [1963] Zoe Oldenbourg

Catherine the Great. A biography of the woman who became Empress of all the Russias. Zoé Oldenbourg. Catherine the Great (Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg) was born in 1729 in Stettin, Pomerania, then Germany. She reigned as Empress of Russia from 1762 until 1796. Under her, the Russian Empire expanded, improved its administration, and continued to modernize along Western European lines. One of the better bios of the many devoted to Catherine.  

NY: Pantheon Books, 1965. Second printing. 378 pages. Introduction, notes, references, chronological tables, index. Hardcover with dustjacket in a clear protective jacket cover. About fine, no ownership marks. Goldblatt's price sticker on front flap. Some edge wear to jacket, closed tear.  Violet topstain. 1 copy only.

Zoé Oldenbourg (1916-2003) was born in Petrograd as the imperial order began to collapse. Her father was a journalist and historian, her mother - a mathematician, and her grandfather the permanent secretary of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Saint Petersburg.